This invention relates to a sheet dispensing system, and more particularly, to a clip lift for such a system which lifts the sheets up towards the opening through which the sheets are dispensed as the sheets are being dispensed.
Sheets such as facial tissues, paper towels, industrial towels and the like are well known in the art. The uses of sheets include, but are not limited to, blowing one's nose, cleaning one's glasses and other cleaning uses. Generally, a sheet dispensing system includes a stack of sheets placed within a carton. A stack of sheets ready to be put into a carton is known in the field as a clip. There are two basic types of cartons: the pop-up variety and the reach-in variety.
A pop-up carton is generally a square or rectangular carton with a sheet dispensing opening on its top wall. The sheets are generally interfolded with each other in pop-up cartons, which is well known in the art. Interfolding means that each sheet is folded around part of the sheet immediately beneath the first sheet. There are various types of interfolding, such as Z-folding or V-folding. Because of the interfolding of the sheets, when a first sheet is pulled up through the dispensing opening, a leading section of a second sheet, i.e., the sheet immediately beneath the first sheet, is also pulled part way through the opening.
In addition, a pop-up carton may include a piece of clear plastic film which covers the sheet dispensing opening. The film is slit such that sheets are dispensed from the carton through the slit. Because the slit is small, sheets are constricted from falling back through the slit once they have been pulled part way through the slit. If there is no such film covering the dispensing opening, generally then at one point of the opening, the opening is narrow enough to constrict the sheets.
Thus, as a result of interfolding the sheets and constricting the sheets by the slit, sheets are dispensed from a pop-up carton in the following manner. For the first sheet, the user must reach through the slit to grab the sheet to begin the sheet dispensing process. As the first sheet is being dispensed, because the sheets are interfolded, the leading section of the second sheet is pulled through the slit. Again, because of the slit, the leading section of the second sheet is constricted and will preferably not fall back through the slit into the carton. The leading section of the second sheet preferably remains outside of the carton, while the trailing section of the second sheet remains inside of the carton, interfolded with a third sheet. Then, when the second sheet is dispensed from, i.e., pulled out of, the carton, the leading section of a third sheet is pulled part way through the opening and is then constricted by the slit from falling back into the carton. Thus, the leading section of the third sheet remains outside of the carton for the next use. This process continues until all sheets have been dispensed from the carton.
A reach-in carton is also basically a square or rectangular carton which has a sheet dispensing opening on its top wall which extends down to include a large part of a side wall of the carton. For a reach-in carton, the sheets are generally not interfolded. To dispense sheets, the opening on the side wall of the carton is large enough such that a person simply reaches into the carton to pull out one or more sheets.
There are fall back problems associated with pop-up cartons. For instance, a sheet may not be interfolded with the sheet below it, i.e., there may be missed interfolds between two successive sheets. If this occurs, when the first sheet is dispensed, the second sheet will not rise up with the first sheet through the sheet dispensing slit in the film. Thus, there will be no sheet for a person to grab from above the carton. When this occurs, the person has to reach through the slit of the film covering the sheet dispensing opening and grab the second sheet and basically restart the pop-up sheet process. The film, however, may be distorted and stretched when a person reaches through it to grab a sheet from inside the carton. A distorted and stretched film may result in more fall backs of sheets.
Fall back of sheets may be more prevalent in a deeper carton where there is more distance between the sheet and the top wall dispensing opening or slit. The second sheet may separate from the first sheet as the space between the top of the sheet stack and the top wall dispensing slit progressively increases as the height of the sheet stack decreases. Thus, the second sheet may at first rise up with the first sheet but may then separate from the first sheet before it is pulled through the sheet dispensing slit. Again, then, a user would have to reach through the sheet dispensing slit, distorting and stretching the film covering the sheet dispensing opening, to restart the pop-up sheet process.
In the past, efforts have been made to provide a member in a carton to bias sheets toward the dispensing opening. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,316, issued to Silver, is directed to a biased stack tissue dispenser, which includes an elastic strip, which has its ends connected to the side walls of the carton, and a cradle. The cradle is positioned below the stack of tissues and above the elastic strip. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,114, issued to Bleuer, is directed to a tissue dispenser, which includes a band of elastic material which is connected to the side panels of the carton. The elastic material is held inactive until released by the user by punching out a perforation line in the bottom wall of the carton. Last, U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,767, issued to Seido, is directed to a tissue paper box, which includes an elastic strip connected to one wall of the box. The elastic strip is partly removable through the dispensing outlet and may be wrapped around the box to maintain the box in a compact form after all of the tissues have been removed from the box. These dispensers, however, are subject to the disadvantage of difficulty in their manufacture due to the fact that the elastic strip is connected to the side walls of the carton. In addition, these dispensers are subject to the disadvantage of difficulty in the insertion of tissues or sheets in the carton. In particular, if the elastic is connected to the side walls, then the tissues are inserted perpendicular to the elastic strip into the carton, which may result in tearing of the tissues.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a sheet dispensing system with a clip lift feature that eliminates or decreases the fall back problems associated with pop-up cartons which is easy and convenient to manufacture. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide a sheet dispensing system which includes a clip lift feature where it is easy to slide sheets into the carton of the system without tearing the sheets.